SAT,, FEBRUARY 14, 183t
One of the more significant accomplishments of the
Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, k
Jr., and members or SNCC, was the Voting Rights Acj
of 1964. Few people today will recall the public beatings
and other forms of humiliation suffered by blacks who
merely wanted to exercise their constitutional right to
vote in some parts of the South.
U is no surprrse; therefore; that prior tol965i only
6.7V of 22,000 blacks in the state of Mississippi were
registered to vote prior to 1965.
The historic Voting rights Act is due to expire next
year and Senator Strom Thurmond has served notice of
his intent to destroy or seriously dilute the Voting Rights
Act. Because of the Republican majority in the Senate,
Senator Thurmond js now the chairman of the powerful
Senate Judiciary Committee. Although Senator Thur
mond, in a recent; television appearance, sought to
assure all the "colored folks" that he seeks to do them
no harm, it behooves all of us, black and white, to
maintain our vigilance to make certain that the most
basic and essential democratic right of all the right to
vote rr remains a right for all.
According to Stephen Chapman, in a recent article in
the New Republic, the Voting Rights Act was a drastic
remedy to a disgraceful and intractable problem.
Disgraceful because the voter registration machinery
was being widely used in much of the South to defraud
blacks of access to the baltot; intractable, because or
dinary litigation, however zealous, could not keep up
with the devices, legal and illegal and, oftimes, even
violent, with which lily-white voter lists were tSeihg ,
Getting Smart
The Right To Vote In Our Democracy
By Walter Smart
TKECASCLBM TIKES -15
Letter to the Editor
The article, "Black Colleges-Another Look" by Dr.
Ada M. Fisher; The Carolina Times, January 17, 1981,
was Jess than poignant; it lacked perception. However, 1
wish to thank her for having the fortitude to broach
some issues that needed to have been discussed long
ago.
The thesis statement of the article indicates that the
writer believes that the financial difficulties of the
predominant Black institutions stem mostly from the
passive, disinterested attitude of most of the graduates.
Here, I offer no explanation for this attitude in the past;
however, I can suggest some explanation for this at
titude today.
Initially, one must view with scrutiny, the situation of
the Black students in many of these schools. It is
necessary that this assessment is made before the
students graduate. Black students have to endure many
humiliating experiences. Many of these experiences
evolve from the fact that some of these schools are no'
longer pledominantly Black. These schools have
undergone a radical change, all to the detriment of the
Black student. The composition of the faculty and stu
dent body has become too white. These schools are no
longer structured and cultured to meet the needs of the
Black students. The mission of these Black institutions
has been aborted, corroded and corrupted.
Most critical, many of the white faculty members lack
the needed sensitivities to teach students with particular
kinds of needs. As a matter of fact, some of them would
be "hard-pressed'? if they were required to teach a dog
to bite. I am persuaded that some do not care if the
Black Students do not succeed.
Many of these white instructors arrive on the Black;
campuses with the fallacious, pre-conceived notion that
Blacks are inferior,-unquaufiable, and unworthy. When
guarded.';' ' i... .. CH
What was finally required, in fact, was a virtual-n
seizure of the registration machinery in much of the
Congress provided in the act an automatic trigger that , ,
brought it into force whenever fewer than half of the
eligible voters had voted in the 1964 presidential elec--tion.
The Act not onjy provided for federally-supervised r
registration; it automatically suspended literacy tests
in some places a favorite device for fraud and denial otSi
registration'.-: j . ' . y'. i
In some Southern states, the results were immediate v
and dramatic. In South Carolina, black registration rose
from 38.7, to 57.3 over a five year period. Iri;i
Alabama (my home state), black registration rose from ,
23 per cent in 1964 to 64 per cent in 1970. The greatest
gain was in Mississippi, where the figures were 6.7 to,
67.5 during the same period.
.' In most Southern states, under the act, the figures for
black registration and voting have continued to rise, br
inging a growing normalization of elective politics and a
Educational Testing
(Continued from Page 10)
their children out of public schools and into exclusive
, private schools.
Almost as if these efforts were not enough, an even
more controversial proposal, competency based testing,
is now being proclaimed as an answer to America's
educational problems.
In a decade of declining test scores and "functional il
literates", competency based testing is promoted by its
proponents as their way of reinforcing the teaching of
basics in reading and mathematics.
Currently operating in some 35-40 state public educa
tion systems, it works in one of two ways: either as a re
quirement that each student at certain selected grade
levels pass state tests in reading and mathemetics in
order to be promoted to the next higher grade or as in
most systems that have adopted the competency based
testing program, it requires a student to pass standardiz
ed tests in reading and mathemetics before he or she can
receive a high school diploma.
To put it mildly, the cometency based testing concept
has created a furor in the education community
, where pro and con forces have battled over the equity of
the concept.
Also, it has received a less than, enthusiastic reception
in the black community. Blacks have traditionally
argued for strong basic skills programs and are
therefore not opposed to academic competence. What
they are questioning is whether a competency test can
properly measure a student's fitness to graduate. There
is also the question about the setting of arbitrary stan
dards for passing the test which might be unfair to black
students.
Perhaps an even more crucial factor in competency
based testing, is the necessity for remedial programs.
Without a guarantee of appropriate and adequate
remediation services for students, competency testing
would obviously fail in its supposed objective of identi
fying academic problems for treatment purposes.
great increase in the number of elected officeholders.
The 1965 Act did more for democracy in Southern
politics than all the other civil rights measures combined.
A new conservative mood has taken the country by
storm. There will be many spokesmen and women of
L, "cT.mo?d rho "w be honorable and fatrroinded.
but lack.ng m knowledge of all the facts. Th new
tTJl "'""K remember thai
the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We, you and I
must do all in our power to assare that the Voting rieht
Act is not dismantled. Utters to your congressmen
senators, and to President Reaean will be necessary '
LET US TAKE ACTION FOR THE SAKE OF
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND IN THE
MEMORY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING. JR.
CiOTrt S- WSWBS. WIS ST. TBOf Z. KVtftY u
Jften? WWnawr'Ww.fww M"n8 a seconajoo at .
arc given tpwaUel cademkifridiBrtvhthey oftert-
abuse. Some of the attitudes they display would not be
tolerated at white schools. The evidence of these at
titudes surfaces in many overt and subtle ways. The un-.
wary may not be aware of it, but these attitudes are in
deed real.
Instead of concentrating on the curriculum, many,
students are forced to expend wasted energy trying to,
dispel these notions. This should not happen. But it is a:
part of the overall scheme of things, the checks and
balance game, designed to rid the Blaek students' minds
of visions of success. If these Students attempt to ad
dress issues emanating from the irrational attitudes and
actions of these white faculty members, the students are1
labeled radicals or rebels. These students may be harass-1
ed and humiliated to the point of exhaustion. Some are
even forced into submission or resignation. The aim is
to graduate apathetic, "assembly-line oreos."
Some of these white instructors, as incredible as this
may sound, are placed in these Black Colleges to impose'
upon the students that malignant doctrine of
Negativism. Simply stated, they are there to denigrate
the status of Black people. One of my instructors was
known to preface her class period remarks each week by
telling the cjass that some of us can not be successful.
She seemed duty-bound and determined to convince us
that we need to seek other means of education and let
some deserving person have our seats. I believe this is
one of the reasons that a nationwide correlation exists
between the increase in the number of white faculty
members at Black institutions and the decrease in the
number of Black graduates of these schools who suc
cessfully take the state board and bar examinations.
I state with affirmation that many of the experiences
of the Black students at these once-Black Colleges are
far from being enjoyable. Therefore, when they do
graduate, they have minimal fond recollections of peo
ple who have treated them with respect, concern and .
kindness. This may be the reason that Black graduates
do not exemplify the allegiance to their school's Alumni
Association. They do not contribute to the Alumni
Association because they feel estranged from the .
schools.
Dr. Fisher was correct in her assertion, in the article,
that Black graduates should show more concern for
their schools. They can not be re-iterated enough. But a
portion of that article could have addressed the reasons
for the lack of concern, commonly known as the disease
of apathy. Her insight should have guided her more to
the disease, instead of its symptoms. The cure for this
disease is elementary.
The Alumni Association must ban together to address
the problems that create apathy for the students.
1 voice concern for the many Black graduates Who
have had; to endure these traumatic experiences while
they were students. I am yet disturbed with them
because they have allowed these conditions to prevail.
Their cognizance of the conditions that existed when
they were students should make them more determined
to lend assistance to their brothers and sisters who are
left to endure the same. ,
It is interesting to know that it is within the power of
the graduates, as the article stated, to effect admissions,
and to implement sound academic policies and pro
grams. How many of the Black graduates are aware that
they have the right and capacity to effectuate such
changes? 6 .(v.---;. : t, '
Let us hope that the articles inspires all alumni to get
in touch with their respective Alumni Associations.
: V -A. Hamilton Daye
their state requirements on this matter
New York State has revised its test after the state
legislature determined that it was inappropriate to use as
a criteria for graduation.
A Florida federal court decided to postpone using the
test for four years as a requirement for graduation.
The judge in that case felt that the "taint of segrega
tion" in Florida schools must be removed before the test
could be utilized.
Properly used a competency based test program can
be a valuable, diagnostic tool to measure a student's
subject matter capability and academic capability.
It should not be a certifying instrument to determine
high school graduation, or should it be used as the sole
determinant of academic promotion.
Its most important task should be to help schools
identify student weaknesses and to then build programs
to rectify those weaknesses.
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